The girl She fell for [gxg]

Ten

Maya waved at me.

"Ready for some burger eating competition?" I asked, grinning at her.

"Yep, haven't eaten since morning," she grinned back.

"Hop on, then, we're already running late."

"Yo."

I had come to her home to pick her up. We were going to Burger King as a party for the win. Our in-charge Miss said that the party would be on her, and I swear it's the best thing I have ever heard from a teacher. Okay maybe not better than, "You're test is cancelled today."

Anyway it was bitter cold outside. Maya's voice said from behind me, "Wow Sam how do you travel in such cold? No wonder your hands are always freezing."

I sighed, "Unlike you, I'm no millionaire."

Maya punched me playfully.

We reached our destination. The heating system provided some relief to my skin.

I caught sight of our teachers, since not at school, they were flaunting their best clothes. Heavy makeup glistening on their demeanors.

There were two vacant seats opposite to them that we gratefully occupied.

Out of school they were pretty breezy and cool with their greeting.

Wow. The change.

The teachers told us to place the order. After some time deciding from the multitudes of types, I settled on the spicy one and Maya was the only one who ordered non-veg.

They told us to wait for a while. Maya picked her phone and started playing a game that I somehow recognised as PUBG.

I took out my phone and aimlessly scrolled through my instagram feed. Memes overflowed the columns. I was having a hard time stifling my yawns.

From my peripheral eye, I saw Maya's fingers tapping away madly on the horizontal screen. Her face was phlegmatic as if she was simply flipping through a magazine but I could feel the focus and strain. There sure was some serious competition in progress.

My eyes clumsily trailed upwards, slowly consuming her physiognomy. Her perfectly sculpted cheekbone curved sharply against her jaw, her nose looked like it had been broken a couple of times. The screen reflected in her deep black eyes, her lips shut tight, muscles tensed.

I thought about our first encounter. She had been so tough on me. What had altered now that she even sacrificed her chance to speak in an inter-school competition? Only for me.

Maya heaved a sigh and turned to look at me. On seeing me peeking at her, she raised a brow questioningly.

I dropped my gaze back to my lap, colouring slightly at getting caught.

Our teacher's bubbly voice called,"Girls, our order is ready."

Maya and I rushed off to get our burgers.

Once we were seated, Maya whispered, "The competition."

"I was just kidding!" I said, horrified at the idea of gobbling down food like a couple of juveniles, that too right in front of our teachers.

Maya smirked at me.

______________________________________

I looked at myself in the mirror. A girl in jeans and a simple full sleeve, though a bit cropped up, stared back at me.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

I put on a buttoned-up long coat to go unnoticed by my Mom.

I slung on a purse bag. Maya was teaching me html these days and we had a conversation that went something like this:

"You are so out of vogue."

"Huh?"

"I've never seen you wear jeans. You dress up like you're in the 19th century."

"Shut up. I can wear jeans if I want."

"Oh yeah? I challenge you then."

"Accepted."

Yeah I know.

So here I was. My Mom took a fleeting glance before going back to her work.

"This girl can do everything except for studying. Goodness knows what will happen to her career," she grumbled.

Phew, test passed.

I raced to Maya's house, playing with the winds.

Maya was already on the laptop. As I came inside, Maya near about ignored me.

I put down my bag at her table and she peeked at me from the corner of her eye.

"Hey."

"Hi. Notice something different?"

Maya nonchalantly tipped her head up, "What?"

"Look carefully," I said, taking off my over coat

She huffed and shifted her gaze to the screen, but a twitch at the corner of her lips gave her away.

"You idiot," I said, punching her arm lightly and Maya broke out guffawing.

I crossed my arms and turned away, walking away towards the window, my blood boiling and she only doubled up laughing her head off.

I stared out of the window, and after a while her laughter died down.

"Samridhi."

No response.

"Hey Sam."

Ignored.

Then I heard her getting up and feet shuffling towards me until she was standing beside me at the window.

"Hey mate, I did not mean to offend you," she said looking at me. I obstinately kept on ignoring her.

"Sam?"

I deliberately kept my watch outside.

"You're looking beautiful today."

The candence in her voice made my heart do a somersault. My head turned towards her.

"Not only today. You look beautiful everyday."

Her hand rose up and tucked away a lone strand of hair behind my ear. My anger dissipated into thin air.

"Every. Fucking. Day." she said emphatically. Her fingers trailed down my jaw making electricity course under my skin.

Her eyes followed her fingers. I could have bet that my face was going tomato red.

Her thumb slowly ran against the edge of my lips as if wiping something off, then dropped by her side.

A soft smile adorned her face.

"What was that?" I managed to say.

"Nothing just your lip gloss was a bit smudged." Just then a paw scratched against the closed door and a soft purr entered the room.

"Ah, that must be Milo." Maya scurried off to open the door.

I barely heard her call her dog and I barely felt it licking my hands.

The electrifying feeling I had experienced on Maya's touch lingered in my veins as I went through a paradigm shift.